Constructing diasystems
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Steffen Höder
Abstract
From a global and historical perspective, multilingualism or at least multilectalism is the rule rather than the exception. However, linguistic theory continues to focus on the idea of a prototypically coherent, static, and monolingual language system. A more realistic approach can set out from the notion of ‘diasystems’, i.e. linguistic systems including more than one variety. Apart from being theoretical constructs, diasystems are also an important component of multilectal speakers’ linguistic knowledge. Within a usage-based construction grammar approach, this paper argues that multilectal speakers (re-)organise their grammars by generalisation over individual constructions and across language boundaries. Therefore, the multilectal system can be modelled as an inventory of constructions that are partly language-specific and partly unspecified for language.
Abstract
From a global and historical perspective, multilingualism or at least multilectalism is the rule rather than the exception. However, linguistic theory continues to focus on the idea of a prototypically coherent, static, and monolingual language system. A more realistic approach can set out from the notion of ‘diasystems’, i.e. linguistic systems including more than one variety. Apart from being theoretical constructs, diasystems are also an important component of multilectal speakers’ linguistic knowledge. Within a usage-based construction grammar approach, this paper argues that multilectal speakers (re-)organise their grammars by generalisation over individual constructions and across language boundaries. Therefore, the multilectal system can be modelled as an inventory of constructions that are partly language-specific and partly unspecified for language.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Language ecology, language evolution, and the actuation question 13
- Syntactic change 37
- Language contact, linguistic variability and the construction of local identities 67
- The social side of syntax in multilingual Oslo 91
- The expansion of the Preterit in Rioplatenese Spanish 117
- Constructing diasystems 137
- Syntactic frames and single-word code-switching 153
- Norwegian discourse ellipses in the left periphery – interacting structural and semantic restrictions 171
- The myth of creole “exceptionalism” 191
- Some notes on bare noun phrases in Haitian Creole and Gùngbè 203
- Coding in time 237
- Index 259
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Language ecology, language evolution, and the actuation question 13
- Syntactic change 37
- Language contact, linguistic variability and the construction of local identities 67
- The social side of syntax in multilingual Oslo 91
- The expansion of the Preterit in Rioplatenese Spanish 117
- Constructing diasystems 137
- Syntactic frames and single-word code-switching 153
- Norwegian discourse ellipses in the left periphery – interacting structural and semantic restrictions 171
- The myth of creole “exceptionalism” 191
- Some notes on bare noun phrases in Haitian Creole and Gùngbè 203
- Coding in time 237
- Index 259
